The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-12-28
HELPING THE coMPosIroR.
Type.SettlIg Machine that Greatly In
creases Efis Speed


cTeases his speed
There Is a composing-room at No. 189
Broadway, says the New York Times, that
would make the average compositor turn
green with envy. In corner by the win
dow was case and before it q young wo-
man was picking up type with both hands
and dropping il hap hazard into funnel
in front OF her. The regular clicking of q
partially concealed piece of mechanism in
dicated the Lagerman type-setting ma
chine in operation.
Lagerman is Scandinavian who has de.
voted forty years to the invention OF type
setting machinery that in some measures
would increase the efectiventness of the
composition or perhaps, do away with him
altogether. The greater part of his effort
was devoted to the perfection OF some mag.
azine arrangement of type to be set free by
a keyboa similar to that of a typewriter.
In this effort he succeeded in achieving q
mechanical success, but the machine was
of complicated character, expensive, aud
liable TO get out of order, so 1t did not
improve on the composition. Failing IN
the attempt to do away with the COM
positor entirely, Legerman conceived the
idea of providing him with mechanical
continuance by which he could set an in
creased number of ems in a stated period.
This attempt, it is claimed, was pre-eml-
ueuby euCCeseAuls Inc yOuuk mOmdu WIZ
gave exhibitions of her agility yesterday,
said tina. she could set seven hundred ems
of ordinary type an hour by the primitive
method still prevalent, and by the ambI-
dexterous method made possible by this
machine she could set 2, 500 ems an hour.
The machine upon which the patent in
this country was obtained was made in
Sweden and was cumbersome, dispropor-
toned and unWieidy in operation. Tne
~ ~ oil
chinery of American manufacture led the
DsgeIman Typothetfe company, having the
management and control OF affairs in this
country, to have q machine built here,
where the best OF milling machinery prom
ised lighter, tastier, handsomer and easier
working machine than they had yet sue
ceeding in producing-the ideal machine in
fact, of the inventor. This was the machine
the company yesterday had on exhibition.
a simple little electric engine supplied
the motive power, but any pos er available
can be employed. Both hands are EN-
ployed in feeding the funnel, and the
skilled composition viii retain his rank in
the profession as we'll with SIS without this
machine. After the type enters the fun
mel the machine take care of it, reversing
and turning where necessary to set the
type in correct position on the line, and
sliding 1t into the galley IS neatly as the
)
but even so much quicker and without
danger OF pi. The near approach OF the
end Of the line is heralded by a bell, warn
ing the compositor to insert another
space more than tpYe high, an assortment
of which comes with the machine. When
one galley is full il can be detached and
another alta ched, and the setting go on
until such time ss the composition feels
that he would like to Justify. Then there
Is an ingenious apparatus TO assist in the
operation. The filled galley is fastened in
this apparatus, and the power is turned on.
Each line in succession is pushed into q
continuance like stick, where the neces-
sary spaces can be added or substituted.
The composition does not lift the ine of
type at any time, and the justifying line
holder is as convenient as the stick would
be. There is no distributing apparatus.
That part of the work needs still to be done
by the composition.
II is claimed for the machine that news
psLer hands of ordinary ability will be
able to set and justify from 1000 to 2 500
ems an hour, while speedier hands will
90 as high as 500. The skilled compos-
itor will be still required, ana he need
learn no new art. He dispenses with the
stick, and gets in its stead the iustifying-
machine assistant. Each machine will set
three sizes of type. The expense of the
machines, though not yet fixed, will be
only about one-tenth that of typs-setting
machines generally employed.